Kirsten Powers: Maybe Ed Schultz is the racist

posted at 12:00 pm on August 21, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

“It’s just insane,” Fox News analyst and Daily Beast columnist Kirsten Powers tells a Fox audience after watching the clip of Ed Schultz accusing Rick Perry of being a racist for using the phrase “big black cloud,” by which Schultz claimed Perry meant Barack Obama. Schultz later apologized for the selective editing of the clip, but Powers isn’t satisfied with Schultz’ selective retreat that pointedly didn’t walk back the allegation of racism. Powers offers a dog-whistle argument right back at the MSNBC host, saying that Schultz’ assumption that “big black cloud” referred to Obama shows that it’s Schultz who’s the real racist, not Perry.

I think Powers is onto something here, and not necessarily the status of Schultz’ racism quotient. The only way that we put this racism meme into its well-deserved and long-overdue grave is to point out that these assumptions themselves are built on prejudicial thinking. Schultz took a perfectly benign and even somewhat overused turn of phrase (“black cloud”) and immediately associated it with a black man? Obama himself has used a similar phrase, “dark cloud,” in at least one speech about Afghanistan and Pakistan in December 2009, and no one accused Obama of sending a dog-whistle message about either himself or the Pakistanis. Janeane Garofalo assumed that a black man (Herman Cain) couldn’t possibly be thinking for himself if he championed conservative values, and therefore must either be psychologically damaged or paid off. What is that if not a racist point of view — that all black people must have a single ideology just because of the color of their skin?

Allahpundit has lamented the fact that we are going to get this kind of nonsense for the next 15 months. If the Left thinks that they can label every single benign turn of phrase as a dog whistle and every voter turned off by Barack Obama’s terrible performance as a racist, then in 15 months they will be finished as a political force. Kirsten Powers won’t be the last commentator drawing the obvious conclusion from those attacks.

Liberals are all Racists. They do not believe minorities can achieve anything without the Democratic party. Conservatives believe all Americas are in fact, created equal, and should be treated as such.

The problem here is that she said it on FNC; until someone calls out Schultz and Matthews and the rest of the cast of characters that continually project their own racial prejudices upon conservatives on one of the alphabet channels, it’ll just be seen as a Fox collusion.

Well, it’s ridiculous to think that we’ve come to the point in society and PC’ness that we have to take the word ‘black’ out of the vernacular so Ed freeking Schultz won’t think that everything is racist.

my former mother in law insists i’m a racist because i don’t like illegal aliens. my former sister in law swears i don’t like mexicans. my former wife and 2 eldest daughters are of mexican decent,but were all born in the usa. trying to explain to a liberal that chicanas are american is like telling my mother that we’re not irish—we’re american. a waste of breath.

The cry of racism from actual racist is becoming apparent. For years racism has come so subtly, from these race hustlers, that it went mostly unchallenged. Not true anymore, the coming of the alternate media has made a world of difference.

I’ve always wondered why we have to break ourselves off into groups such as black, white, hispanic, asian. We’re all here, and should refer ourselves to as Americans.

I’m sick of the race crap. I don’t dislike Obama because he’s black. Hell…I don’t dislike him, because I don’t know him. I just don’t like his policies. It’s as simple as that. He’s to liberal, and wants to take this country onto a path she was never meant to be on. If that makes me a racist, so be it. But I really do see this as a window into the white liberal mind more so than the conservative.

It is not the conservative that wants to keep people poor and on entitlements, to keep them in their pasture for votes. They can’t win on ideology, so they use projected racism on others, to hide what they truly are.

Maybe it’s because of my age, but I’m old enough to recall when the late Al Capp drew the Lil’ Abner comic strip. The strip was more social commentary that comic strip, but one character of Capp’s that reminds me of the current Comedian-in-Cheif is Joe Btfsplk. Btfsplk walked around ever under a “big black cloud”. (View the image here: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hLoMlF_xSJg/Tjv8TfeJSSI/AAAAAAAAAOY/tbqdIg8DK9s/s1600/joe+btfsplk.jpg) He was the original “hard luck” case. The difference is that poor Joe was a victim of The Fates, while “Present-dent Obeyme” is a victim of his own hubris.

I’ve always wondered why we have to break ourselves off into groups such as black, white, hispanic, asian. We’re all here, and should refer ourselves to as Americans.

capejasmine on August 21, 2011 at 12:22

Mostly because it works to the left’s advantage though there are some on the fringe right that use it too. I have tired of the questions on
things like the census that always seek to divide in such fashion. So much for being color blind.

The left has been screeching for many years that if you are against giving amnesty to millions of scofflaw criminal illegal immigrants it is solely because you are a racist, a bigot, a skin color prejudiced person.

Why should the subject of Barack Hussein Obama, whom is at least half Caucasian but merely by virtue of the color of his skin has been given reverence as the first black President, be any different? The left, and Barack Hussein Obama himself, have been playing the race card since before he was ever even elected POTUS… and he’s just as much Caucasian as he is black.

Okay then, fine. Barack Hussein Obama is the worst black President we have ever had. Oops. My racism is showing.

Somehow the actual racist, have convinced the country, that the republican party is the culprit. Who was the KKK, what party was Bull Conner? They made the transfer of blame with hand outs and redistribution of taxes making it seem that those that wanted an economy where everyone earned their own way, through work, to be the racist. Funny how that works. It actually was a racist proposition saying that a part of our culture could not make it on their own. No they needed the government to “LEVEL” the playing field by taking from one and giving to the other, and in so doing they destroyed the Black family structure.

My aunt once told me that while the Democrats were the racist party, the Democrats and the Republicans “switched positions” after 1964. She said it as if this were common knowledge. This is, of course, one of the Democrats’ Big Lies that could be disproven by thinking about it for thirty seconds. But this woman has a Phd in Anthropology and taught at the University of Connecticut.

The Republicans are the party of Lincoln. Barack Obama trots out Lincoln, for gravitas/weight. Because an ambitious green pol who spent all of 18 months in the U.S. Senate from the land of Lincoln, doesn’t have any gravitas of his own. It’s why he brought a White House photographer to Dover for a photo op of him saluting our war dead, in “noir” silhouette over the objections of their families. I don’t feel sorry for those who fall for MSNBC’s whitey bashing, most of them are out of work and or foreclosed on. That’s a high price to pay for a boutique Presidency.

The presidential election is going to be one big mud slinging contest. Barry has no record to run on. The MSM has already begun it’s “investigations” into the backgrounds of the current crop of GOP candidates – and you can expect that none of it will be flattering.

While the hopefuls may attack Barry’s inept policies, there will be no rational retort as to the effectiveness of those policies. Merely a statement that the attack is personally directed at the president because of his race.

For the liberal – given limited intelligence and reasoning ability – that argument will suffice.

Let ’em play the race card – then yawn in their faces while saying “Is that the BEST you can come up with?”

I’m sick of the race crap. I don’t dislike Obama because he’s black. Hell…I don’t dislike him, because I don’t know him. I just don’t like his policies. It’s as simple as that.

capejasmine on August 21, 2011 at 12:22 PM

I think you highlight a point, unintentionally. You say you don’t dislike him because you don’t know him. Why don’t you know him? Haven’t you witnessed how he treats people he disagrees with? Haven’t you witnessed his blatant personal attacks.

I contend that many people claim to like him because they are afraid to be tagged with the racist tag. That’s why polls show that his personal favorables are much higher than his competency favorables.

I don’t like him and I’m not afraid to say so. He’s arrogant and shows no compassion for others. To him, if you disagree with him, you must be destroyed. How can anyone like that be considered likeable?

I contend that many people claim to like him because they are afraid to be tagged with the racist tag. That’s why polls show that his personal favorables are much higher than his competency favorables.

I don’t like him and I’m not afraid to say so. He’s arrogant and shows no compassion for others. To him, if you disagree with him, you must be destroyed. How can anyone like that be considered likeable?

NoNails on August 21, 2011 at 1:01 PM

You beat me to it on both of these points, and you’re absolutely right!

I saw the edited clip before I saw the full, unedited one. It was obvious even with the edit that Perry was talking about the debt. When Schultz made the racism allegation I thought he was grasping at straws and exposing his own racist thinking.

I contend that many people claim to like him because they are afraid to be tagged with the racist tag. That’s why polls show that his personal favorables are much higher than his competency favorables.

I don’t like him and I’m not afraid to say so. He’s arrogant and shows no compassion for others. To him, if you disagree with him, you must be destroyed. How can anyone like that be considered likeable?

NoNails on August 21, 2011 at 1:01 PM

Well stated, but let’s not forget another personal trait we’ve all observed, whether personally knowing/meeting Obama or not: He lies, knowingly and often with malice. Anyone who lies is someone whom I personally dislike and I don’t need to have ever been around that person one on one to form that conclusion.

I ask how can you say you like this pos personally? He advocates violence by asking followers to “get in their faces” He lies when ever he opens his mouth. He bows down to the enemies of freedom. He tells us to sacrifice while he spends copious amounts of tax payers money on his self and family. He sits back and watches people be slaughtered by tyrants. He tries to humiliate Israel and it’s elected leader like a little child.

So I ask with all this apparent to all that looks, what the hell is there to like about this guy. tell me what is there to like? I my self am not afraid to say I really dislike him for what he stands for, and what he has done to this country. Republican party: take off the gloves, he is not to be coddled. He is not to be respected. Treat him as he has treated us, with disgust and lay his sins out for all to see. Show how he disrespects those he “tolerates” by flipping them the finger. He’s garbage.

While I suspect a lot of liberals are racist, I’m not so sure about Schultz. I remember reading somewhere (I think it was here) that Schultz used to have a conservative talk radio show. It didn’t get very high ratings so he did a 180 and became a liberal talk show host.

If true, then he’s neither a liberal or a conservative – he’s a showman with no core beliefs whatsoever. He just does stupid crap like this for ratings.

Ed, I’d suggest a better and more accurate term is “racialist” and not “racist.”

Schultz and, in particular, Chris Matthews are racialists. That is, they see Barack Obama’s race first and his other qualities as secondary or ancillary to that. If you see Obama as exclusively a black man – a racialist view – then you interpret comments by his critics as being attacks on his race and not attacks on the man or his policies. Because all you see is his race and not the person.

I’ve thought of that too. Kirsten may have noted that Ed is racist by what he says and does…but wouldn’t she still be considered racist, by the fact that she continues to believe in entitlements and big government? She will surely push that lever for Obama in the next election, thereby solidifying her belief that big government and entitlements are always the answers to the problems.

I think, by continuing the belief on those issues makes her no better than Ed. She just chooses to spew her beliefs in a different way. But not recognizing the growing of slavery on the plantation is ignorance to ones racism.

I don’t like him and I’m not afraid to say so. He’s arrogant and shows no compassion for others. To him, if you disagree with him, you must be destroyed. How can anyone like that be considered likeable?

NoNails on August 21, 2011 at 1:01 PM

You are right. I don’t like him for those traits and flaws. I didn’t think that far into it when I responded, but you’re right. It would be hard for me to like him on those aspects. I don’t surround myself with people like that because I don’t like those traits, so…. I don’t like Obama.

It’s not just Schultz it’s liberals and Democrats. They’re so used to being able to play the race card and get positive results they know nothing else. What defense can they possibly come up with for Obama? There is none for the policies he’s enacted. So, they do what they always did, play the race card.

Now, I do have to say that some are better at it than others, which is why MSNBC should fire their whole crew. None of them are really good at it. Matthews is the worst, he could find racism in a kindergarten class, any kindergarten class. Schultz, what he did was so amateur it’s pathetic, he should have been fired. That is the difference, if Republicans were doing stupid things like this they’d be fired, because there’s not room for amateurs. Apparently, MSNBC doesn’t care about their credibility, let’s face it with the Obama love they’ve had the past 3 years they don’t have a lot of credibility anyway, so they’ll tolerate this stuff.

I don’t like him and I’m not afraid to say so. He’s arrogant and shows no compassion for others. To him, if you disagree with him, you must be destroyed. How can anyone like that be considered likeable?

All of the liberal favorite programs like affirmative action, racial quotas, set asides,subsidized housing, food stamps welfare etc. are tacit proof in their belief that blacks are inferior and unable to compete given the equal opportunity that MLK dreamed of! Lots and lots of blacks are wising up to this and leaving the plantation that the Democrats have provided for them for the last 40 years.Like most Americans, they just want a level playing field and equal opportunity.It is not surprising that a Muslim-loving Kenyan is tone deaf to this and he makes no attempt to reach out to anyone but Muslims. If blacks want his attention they might join the growing crowd that pretends to be Muslim. Then he will bow and notice you.

Thanks Kirsten… The way to stop the claims of racism from the left… is to turn it back at them every possible chance.
–Unless it is absolutely undeniable that the person being accused made a racist statement… and meant it that way… the accuser should be called racist for making the accusation.
–
Been saying this for years now… and KP just nailed it. ;)
–

If the Left thinks that they can label every single benign turn of phrase as a dog whistle and every voter turned off by Barack Obama’s terrible performance as a racist, then in 15 months they will be finished as a political force.

If that were true, wouldn’t they have been finished as a political force back in 2007? 2008? 2009? 2010? 2011?

Why will 2012 be the magical year in which that occurs – they’ve been calling people who were against Obama and his policies and his record ‘racists’ since the day he announced his candidacy, and have yet to stop.

If the Left thinks that they can label every single benign turn of phrase as a dog whistle and every voter turned off by Barack Obama’s terrible performance as a racist, then in 15 months they will be finished as a political force.

Doesn’t anyone find it ironic that LBJ was able to get important Civil Rights legislation passed only with social welfare programs that assured that blacks would continue to be beholden to their Democrat massa’s from the part of slavery? I do have to say that the Dems have worked hard for the big tent of inclusiveness–Slavery for Everyone!

All of the liberal favorite programs like affirmative action, racial quotas, set asides,subsidized housing, food stamps welfare etc. are tacit proof in their belief that blacks are inferior and unable to compete given the equal opportunity that MLK dreamed of!

That’s the only way to battle these racists who accuse us of being racist. Call them out. If there’s no other evidence that someone’s being racist other than the color of his skin, the accuser is a racist. Bingo!

After the election, when Comrade O loses big time…there will be riots fueled by not only flash mobs of “disenfranchised youths and teens” and by Twitter feeds from the LSM….Ed Schmutz….Debbie Wasserman Schmuts, barbara lee, maxine waters, sharpton, jackson and rangel. Oberfurher , O’donnell, Garafolo, maher and all socialist “progressive” liberal scum will fuel the rage.

They’ll be whooping it up and banging the “get whitey” war drums. My only hope is…that the libs see the flash mobs climbing over the walls in brentwood, hollywood, santa barbara, bel air, the hamptons and every bastion of liberal, white, privileged, comfy existence all over America. Let them please, Lord…get a taste of the fury their lies have unleashed.

On the other hand…if Comrade O should win…there will still be destruction caused by those same flash mobs, celebrating a win over “racism” by looting, ravaging, smashing windows and getting those necessary freebies they all need. Post Katrina photos should be viewed by all.

When you’re being repeatedly poked in the eye with a stick, it’s hardly bright to point out that you see the stick coming. I think she probably is intelligent, but pointing out a stark reality that everyone else sees does not count as evidence.

Evidence to the contrary would be that she’s allegedly pro-life but supported Hillary in ’08. Hillary hasn’t seen a method of abortion that wasn’t unworthy of public funding.

Significant amounts of the left’s worldview requires certain ethnicities to believe certain things, perform to certain levels, and react in certain ways. Those that do not are questioned and are told they are not being true to their race, typically by whites. See Herman Cain and Marco Rubio for two of the most notable recent examples.

This ignores the Al Shaprtons and Jesse Jacksons of the world who need racism to pay for their expensive suits and d-bag lifestyles. Without “racism” they’re just “Reverends” at two-bit “churches”.

It’s just insane,” Fox News analyst and Daily Beast columnist Kirsten Powers tells a Fox audience after watching the clip of Ed Schultz accusing Rick Perry of being a racist for using the phrase “big black cloud,” by which Schultz claimed Perry meant Barack Obama

And yet, Kirsten Powers spends so much time emoting on FOX, I surf away when I see her face. For every action, she has to conjure an implausible counter argument, and keep her hair poufed at the same time. That goes for The Five babblers, or the new crime outrage of the week lady, etc

I am hanging out more at EWTN than any of the news channels, because the national news is so hungry for drivel in lieu of substance they are trolling the troll pit of politics to find safe topics of outrage